Notes:
a all of the Austrian part of the Asutro-Hungarian empire
b includes Alsace Lorraine (60 breweries) and parts of what are now
Poland
c Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia
d excludes Alsace Lorraine (60 breweries)
e Based on the territory, at that time ruled by the German, Russian
and Austrian empires, which formed the independant Polish state after
WW1.
f the population of Poland in 1920
g excluding all of Ireland
h all of Ireland

The
Austrian brewing industry

It
would be easy to assume that Austria shares a common beer culture as well
as a language with its larger neighbour. Yet in many ways Austrian beer
is distinclty different from that of Germany. The old cultural ties of the
Habsburg empire which link it with the Czech Republic are just as important.

There is one obvious and important difference between Austrian and German
brewing: Austria (thankfully) does not have a Reinheitsgebot.
It can be no coincidence that in Austria new breweries have been much more
willing to take on a wide range of styles, including some, such as pale
ale, not indigenous to central Europe. It should be noted, however, that
some of the longer-established lager breweries do make a point of sticking
to the Reinheitsgebot.

As is the case now in most smaller European countries, a single large company
dominates the beer market. Brau-Union
AG, which owns the Gösser, Zipfer, Schwechater, Wieselburger and Puntigamer
breweries accounts for 56% of beer sales. It was fromed in the late 1990's
by a merger of Austria's two largest brewery groups, Steirerbrau and Brau-AG.

The
company appeared intent on becoming a major European player during the 1990's.
It embarked on an aggressive strategy of acquisition in countries of the
former Soviet Block, such as Poland, Romania and Hungary. I always had my
doubts about whether they really had the finances or resolve to tackle the
likes of Interbrew and Heineken head on. As it turned out, they didn't.
In 2002 the company announced that it was looking for an international partner.
In effect, they were waving a white flag and saying "please take us
over, nice Mr. Multinational". Heineken duly obliged.

Brau-Union still runs a large number
of, by international standards, small plants in Austria. It's unlikely that
the majority of them will survive long under globalist control.

All of Brau-Union's competitors brew
on a much smaller scale. It is only the Brau-Union
beers which are widely available on a national level. Neverthless, the top
five companies account for 83% of the market between them.

There are currently 170 breweries (plus three who get their beer brewed
elsewhere) operating in Austria. This is a rough breakdown of the structure
of the Austrian brewing industry:

Anton
Dreher introduced bottom-fermenting beer to Austria in 1840. In 1833/34
he had travelled to Britain in the company of Gabriel Sedlmayr (of the Spaten
brewery in Munich) to study the brewing industry. On his return, he first
attempted to brew a Burton-style pale ale, though without any great success.
Inspired by what Sedlmayr had told him about the Bavarian way of brewing,
he decided to give bottom fermentation a try. The result was the first Vienna-style
amber lager.

Vienna lagers came in a variety of different strengths, the common thread
being the Vienna amber malt from which they were brewed. At that time most
lagers were brewed from a single type of malt: brown Münchner malt
in Munich, pale pilnser malt in Pilsen. The subtypes were (in ascending
order of strength) Abzug/Schenk (10-11º), Lagerbier (12-13º),
Märzen (14º), Export (15º). (For more information on this
topic, see my "19th Century Lager Styles"
page. )

It should not be forgotten that at the time of the development of new lager
beers in Pilsen and Ceské Budejovice (Budweis), both were under Austrian
rule. So, in reality, Austria rather than Germany is the home of the modern
style of pale lager beers. The beers brewed in Munich up until the end of
the 19th century were all dark. Dreher took the first step in brewing a
paler lager. You can see a progression of paler and paler beers: Munich
- dark brown; Vienna - dark amber; Pilsen pale amber; Ceské Budejovice
- yellow.

Sadly, one style of beer you won't find easily in Austria today is a true
Vienna amber lager.

Bottom-fermenting beers

The great majority of beers brewed in Austria are pale lagers. That
said, there are is a reasonable variety of different lager styles brewed
in Austria.

Here's a quick overview of the bottom-fermenting styles.

Märzen
(or Lagerbier): Not to be confused with the German style of the same
name, an Austrian Märzen is a pale lager of 11º to 12.5º
Plato and 5 - 5.2% alcohol. The densities have fallen a shade in the last
ten years, with some beers dropping below 12º.

In Austria the term "Märzen" appears to refer to the realtive
strength of the beer, rather than a specific type of amber lager. Vienna
lagers were originally subdivided (in ascending order of strength) Abzug/Schenk
(10-11º), Lagerbier (12-13º), Märzen (14º), Export
(15º). When the switch was made from Vienna to Pilsner malt, the
same classifications were used. Outside Austria, where they must have
only ever seen the Märzen strength of Vienna lager, the name was
interpreted as meaning an amber lager of 14º. A gradual erosion of
beer strengths has left Austrian Märzens elbowing Lagerbier out of
the 12º slot and into oblivion. The slot above, approximately13º,
is now occupied by Spezial. For more information on this topic, see my
"19th Century Lager Styles"
page.

Much like a Bavarian Helles, it is a malt-accented beer with delicate
hopping. It is the standard beer and has managed to retain its market
share remarkably well. It still accounts for well over 50% of beer drunk
in Austria. Every brewery produces a Märzen.

Pils:
The Austrian version is pretty much to the international standard: highly-attenuated,
very little malt character, heavily-hopped. They are 11-12 Plato and
somewhere around 5% alcohol.

It's very much a foreign style - the first Austrian pils was only brewed
in 1977. The Austrian examples are amongst the better beers of this
type brewed in Europe.

It has failed to make much impact and has even lost market share since
1990. With just over 5% of sales it is very much a minority product.
Austria is surely the European country that drinks the least pils.

Spezialbier:
Very much like a Bavarian Spezial - a pale lager of at least 12.5º
Plato and around 5.5% alcohol, full-bodied and quite hoppy.

Pretty well all the breweries produce a beer of this type. Even though
sales have fallen considerably in the last 10 years (over 40%) it's still
more popular than pils. The densities of these beers appear to have been
falling. . Not long ago, around 13º would have been considered a
minimum. The majority are now around 12.8º.

Dunkles:
This term covers quite a wide variation in flavours, which all get lumped
together as "dark" lagers. They vary in density between 12º
and 14º Plato, but because of the high concentration of residual
sugars are weaker - 4 % to 5.5% - than would be expected.

The majority are very sweet with dark malt flavours and only a very restrained
hop character. (Such beers are often called Doppelmalz, a designation
which in Germany means a dark, low-alcohol beer.) The high level of sweetness
makes them quite different from a münchner or a Czech dark lager.

There has been a move towards beers in the drier Czech style, but these
are still less common than the sweeter type. Dry dark lagers are easy
to spot in the list below by a quick check of the degreee of attenuation.

A large number of breweries produce a dark lager, though it is very much
a minority style in terms of sales.

Bockbier: A strong lager of at least 16º Plato and around 6.5%
alcohol. It is very full-bodied with a bittersweet taste. It can vary
in colour between amber and dark brown.

They are usually seasonal beers - Christmas and Easter being the favourite
times for releasing them. There are some excellent beeers brewed in this
style. The majority of breweries produce one, though total sales have
fallen by 50% in the last 10 years and this style's market share is less
than 0.5%. Though this is slightly deceptive as most examples are only
available for a few weeks a year.

There are a few beers in the Doppelbock style, of 17º Plato or more.
Eggenberger Urbock 23°, at over 9% alcohol, is the strongest.

Zwicklbier:
This isn't so much a style as a method of conditioning. A zwicklbier
is any beer that is left unfiltered. Usually, it is a version of a brewery's
biggest seller - in most cases, a Märzen. Zwettl brews a Zwickl
Bock.

There are a few bottled variations, but much more commonly they are
draught only beers. Such beers have become increasingly popular and
are even made by the bigger breweries.

Vienna: A reddish-amber lager of 12º - 14º Plato and
5.2 to 5.8% alcohol. They have roasted malt flavours and some sweetness
in the mouth, but with a balancing bitterness in the finish. The colour,
which is very important in this style, is about half-way between a pils
and a münchner - somewhere around the colour of an English bitter.
They should be brewed from 100% Vienna malt. As mentioned above, they
originally came in a variety of strengths.

The Bavarian märzen (or Oktoberfest) style is very similar, but
is always at the top end of the strength range (around 14º) and
a touch paler in colour.

This is the style brewed by Anton Dreher when he introduced bottom-fermenting
to Austria in 1840. Once beers of this type were brewed to a great variety
of gravities, though the Märzen-strength version was the most famous
type. Today you'll just find the odd leftover or revival. Only the Siebenstern-Bräu
brewpub in Vienna currently has an amber Märzen in its range.

Currently a couple of dozen amber lagers (excluding Bock) are brewed
in Austria, split pretty evenly between 11-12.4º and 12.5-14º.
The few that claim to be Märzen fall into both strength bands.

Helles: A very pale yellow beer of 11.5º - 12.5º Plato
and 4.5 to 5.2% alcohol. A malty, sweetish beer that is quite lightly
hopped.

This style is quite close to Märzen and the beers seem to overlap
in terms of taste and strength. A Helles is generally a little paler,
weaker and sweeter than a Märzen. The term is also much used by brewpubs,
where, as in Germany, the standard beers are a pale and a dark lager.
Such beers can diverge greatly from the flavour profile given above and
may more closely resemble a pils.

Schankbier: A generic term given to anything in the 9-11º
gravity range. Compared to Germany, where its sales are insignificant,
the 5-6% of the market these beers have doesn't look that bad. Almost
all are pale lagers

Leicht/Medium: Things under 9º in the range 2.8-3.3% ABV.
Mostly pale lagers. It's grip on the market (it accounts for less than
1% of sales) isn't great.

Top-fermenting
beers

Except in new brewpubs and microbreweries, the only top-fermented beers
produced are Bavarian-style wheat beers. As the popularity of such beers
has increased in the last 20 years, more and more regional breweries have
started to produce them. However, they still form a tiny fraction - less
than 2% - of all beer sold.

Let's take a closer look at the types of top-fermenting beer brewed in
Austria.

Weizenbier
Hell: A pale wheat beer with about 40% wheat in the mash. They are
between 11º and 13º Plato, 4.5% - 5.5% alcohol.

The same special wheat beer yeast is used as in Bavaria. This imparts
lots of spicy aromas, such as cloves and ginger. The hopping levels are
very low. Most of theses beers are left unfiltered and have a secondary
fermentation in the bottle (Hefeweizen). The filtered version is referred
to as Kristall-Weizen.

Traditionally, weizen beers are only sold in bottled form, though ibn
the last few years some draught versions have been appearing.

Weizenbier
Dunkel: Much the same as the pale wheat beer, except darker in colour.
They are between 11º and 13º Plato, 4.5% - 5.5% alcohol.

The wheat beer yeast in conjunction with darker malts tends to impart
the finished beer with a distinctive banana aroma. The dark wheat beers
are always - as far as I am aware - left unfiltered.

Weizenbock: A wheat version of bock, weighing in at a minimum
16.5º Plato and 6.5% alcohol. Always dark, it's pretty much a scaled
up version of Weizenbier Dunkel.

There are only a few breweries which produce such a a beer. A good example
is brewed by the Weißbierbrauerei in Salzburg.

Alt: There are a couple of breweries producing beers of this
style. They are dark amber in colour and around 12º Plato and 5%
alcohol.

Other
styles: Some of the new small breweries produce beers in British ale
styles - porter, stout and pale ale.